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Boy Scouts' talk of ending gay ban divides faith-based chapters

Boy scout Shane McConnell, 12, front left, and other members of Boy Scout Troop 130 take the Scout oath at the beginning of their meeting. Members of the troop meet in the basement of the First United Methodist Church in Golden. Nationally, the Boy Scouts likely will lift their ban on gay scouts and leaders this week. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

The Boy Scouts of America's talk of reversing its ban on openly gay scouts and leaders has divided the 100-year-old organization's biggest participants: churches.

Of the more than 100,000 scouting units in the U.S., nearly 70 percent are chartered by faith-based groups, according to BSA statistics. Conservative denominations and movements that denounce homosexual behavior control some big numbers.

Leadership at the conservative ministry Focus on the Family worries lifting the ban means diluting the Scout Oath to "keep morally straight" to "morally neutral."

But progressive church leaders point to the inclusive concepts of the Scout Law, "kind," "friendly" and "brave."

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The policy change, if it is made, would allow religious, civic and educational organizations to decide locally whether troops may include openly gay leaders and members. BSA is expected to make its announcement Wednesday.

Focus president Jim Daly said in a recent blog post that what is at stake in the debate is "the character and safety of the boys involved."

"Does this put boys at greater risk of molestation? I think the research shows that, regarding the molestation that has happened in the Boy Scouts, there was a connection to homosexuality, " Daly said to in a telephone interview from Focus' Colorado Springs headquarters.

"I think it's a fair debate to have," Daly said. "We have a deep disagreement about what is best for our children."

A mass exodus from scouting by conservative groups could damage the BSA, which already has seen more than a 20 percent decline in membership since the 1990s.

Boy Scout figures for 2011 show the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, accounts for almost half of the faith-based charters and one-third of total scout units. The small LDS ward-based chapters include almost 421,000 boys — about 16 percent of the country's 2.7 million scouts.

LDS spokeswoman Jessica Moody said it would be inappropriate to comment about the proposed changed to leadership policy until it is made.

However, in 2000, when there was a legal challenge to the exclusion of gays, LDS church lawyers argued before the U.S. Supreme Court they would leave the organization if forced to accept openly gay members.

The Catholic Church's 8,570 units and almost 284,000 scouts accounted for about 11 percent of all U.S. scouts in 2011. Local Catholic leaders, too, declined to comment on any policy change before BSA's final decision, but the National Catholic Committee on Scouting opposes the proposed change, according to the Christian Newswire.

Yet United Church of Christ congregations nationwide announced they observed this year's National Boy Scout Sunday "with more enthusiasm and conviction" because the Boy Scouts were reconsidering the 35-year official policy of exclusion.

Baptist congregations combined chartered almost 4,100 chapters with more than 109,000 scouts (roughly 4 percent of all scouts) in 2011.

Daly said he was less concerned about boys who identify as gay than about homosexual men leading and protecting the boys. And the idea that conservative chapters could insulate themselves from the change is faulty, he said, because troops congregate at larger events, such as the National Jamboree.

Gay rights groups point out that child sexual abuse of scouts by pedophiles occurred before any policy change and by perpetrators who hid their sexual identities. They also argue most psychologists hold that child molesters don't have an adult sexual orientation — heterosexual or homosexual — but are attracted by age rather than gender.

"No one should be pushing any agenda," Pettis said. "We're here to do the scouting program only. It's an opportunity for boys to experience things above and beyond what they get at home and at school."

On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty to God and my country. To help other people at all times, to obey the Scout Law, and to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

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